Decolonizing Economics: An Introduction

Is economics a neutral scientific field, or is it riddled with eurocentric biases that stem from its origins in the development of capitalism, colonialism, and slavery?

This book makes the case that economics cannot extricate itself from its highly problematic imperial context without a rigorous process of decolonization, which must involve questioning and re-assessing the development of the field and how it came to be represented as a universal and objective science. In doing so, argue the authors, we can challenge the existing intellectual hierarchies and show that the field as it stands now has become ill-equipped to tackle the critical questions of our time, such as structural racism, environmental crisis, informal labour relations and the role of power in shaping economic outcomes. A decolonized economics can help us pioneer alternative - and better - ways of understanding economic questions by introducing key interventions by non-Western thinkers and non-eurocentric theories.

This is a critical guide for anyone intellectually curious to understand how economics can be decolonized and what can be learned from a decolonized economics.

Carolina Alves is Joan Robinson Fellow in Heterodox Economics at Girton College, University of Cambridge.
Devika Dutt is Lecturer in Development Economics at King’s College London.
Surbhi Kesar is Lecturer in Economics at SOAS, University of London.
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven is Lecturer in International Development at King’s College London.